Philosophy of Mind

Every doctrine and theology that once made up my world view has been shredded to pieces. I have quite a comprehensive list of things that I no longer believe. However, when I’m asked, “What do you believe in?” I come up short. The questioner is essentially asking for my personal definition of God, salvation, and the afterlife. Most often when I’ve attempted to formulate an answer, I can clearly sense the interviewer is not trying to hear me but is readily compiling their rebuttal to any answer that would differ from the “I Am”, as introduced in the book of Exodus. I haven’t developed much of a new belief system based in faith. Truthfully, I’ve enjoyed the break from having to.

I haven’t always been this cavalier. Leaving the traditional view of Christianity behind was a necessary, but fearful, event for me. I am one that feels very uncomfortable with not having black and white answers and defined outlines. I am compelled to feel that I have a solid base on the idea at hand. Wandering out into wide open philosophical spaces takes away that safety net. However, my growing Cognitive Dissonance between sermons and rational thought had grown so intense that I needed to drop it all and accept not knowing.

So, what do I believe in? I’d rather answer it by beginning with an entirely different phrasing: What is my philosophy of mind?

We are all searching for something outside of ourselves. We wish for something greater that we can look to, trust in, be thankful for and possibly repay. Daniel Dennett wrote an essay, with which I completely agree, called Thank Goodness. In this writing he works through a recovery period in his health to which he is truly thankful for the goodness that he has encountered.

The best thing about saying thank goodness in place of thank God is that there really are lots of ways of repaying your debt to goodness—by setting out to create more of it, for the benefit of those to come. Goodness comes in many forms, not just medicine and science. Thank goodness for the music of, say, Randy Newman, which could not exist without all those wonderful pianos and recording studios, to say nothing of the musical contributions of every great composer from Bach through Wagner to Scott Joplin and the Beatles. Thank goodness for fresh drinking water in the tap, and food on our table. Thank goodness for fair elections and truthful journalism. If you want to express your gratitude to goodness, you can plant a tree, feed an orphan, buy books for schoolgirls in the Islamic world, or contribute in thousands of other ways to the manifest improvement of life on this planet now and in the near future.

I once had hopes that a new type of church formation would emerge. I rarely think toward that anymore. It may happen, it may not. I focus more on the goodness of the moment. My drive to “do something for God” has been replaced by “just be kind to people”. Anne Lammott writes it best with her definition of the Law of the Jungle: “Remain calm and share your bananas.”

And as for the piece of the human question that begs, “for what purpose are we here?”, psychologist Carl Jung’s answer is my favorite: As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.